The Best of FanGraphs: September 21-25, 2015

by
September 26, 2015

Each week, we publish north of 100 posts on our various blogs. With this post, we hope to highlight 10 to 15 of them. You can read more on it here. The links below are color coded — green for FanGraphs, brown for RotoGraphs, dark red for The Hardball Times, orange for TechGraphs and blue for Community Research.

MONDAY
Craig Counsell on Decisions and Collaboration, by David Laurila
The Brewers manager talks about the relationship between the manager and front office. Apropos given the Brewers just hired a new general manager.

Postseason Rotations and Matching Up Aces, by Roger Cheng
This was Roger’s debut post. Please welcome him to the FanGraphs family!

Explaining Eduardo Escobar, by Scott Strandberg
He’s been on fire for awhile, but may still end up overlooked next season. Should he be?

A Short(-ish) Introduction to Using R Packages for Baseball Research, by Bill Petti
Well, short-ish for a Bill Petti article, anyway. This is an excellent resource if you want to learn more about baseball research.

TUESDAY
Joey Votto on Aging, by Eno Sarris
Joey Votto likes his pants tight? Joey Votto likes his pants tight.

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The Double-A Jump, by Alex Skillin
Alex investigates why the jump from High-A to Double-A separates the men who probably won’t succeed in the majors from the men who will.

WEDNESDAY
Yogi Berra Was Certifiably Clutch, by Jeff Sullivan
Yogi Berra hit a lot of home runs for someone who rarely struck out. That was just one of the many, many ways that made him special.

Biggest Disappointments from the Top 100 (Non-Injury Edition), by Paul Sporer
Why yes, Ian Desmond is mentioned in this article, why do you ask?

THURSDAY
The Royals Are Basically the Best Contact Team Ever, by Jeff Sullivan
This could be important next month. It was certainly important last October.

Ranking the 30 Minor League Systems Statistically, by Tony Blengino
Rankings are fun. Lots of good analysis in here from Tony.

Final 2015 ZOBRIST Values, by Jeff Zimmerman
One name to keep an eye on in instructs is Tyler White.

TechGraphs Report: On Deck Sports and Technology Conference, by Brice Russ
This marvelous event was held in New York this week, and Brice was on the scene to soak it all in.

FRIDAY
Looking for More Cy Young Separators, by Dave Cameron
This article was triggered by some comments in Dave’s piece on Thursday. The point of both was to try and figure out who most deserves the NL Cy Young Award. They may have helped a little, but it’s going to be a really interesting vote.

How Game Theory Is Applied to Pitch Optimization, by Hattie James
An excellent overview from Hattie.

Towards an Inside Edge Runs Saved, by Eli
An interesting idea and study, and one that may warrant further exploration.





 

Paul Swydan used to be the managing editor of The Hardball Times, a writer and editor for FanGraphs and a writer for Boston.com and The Boston Globe. Now, he owns The Silver Unicorn Bookstore, an independent bookstore in Acton, Mass. Follow him on Twitter @Swydan. Follow the store @SilUnicornActon.

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